Zoom Image

Successful launch: The launch vehicle with the probe on board takes off as planned from the new Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome

Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

Russia has launched a flight to the moon with the Luna 25 space probe for the first time in almost 50 years. The space apparatus for the exploration of the moon is to land there at the South Pole and search for water, among other things.

The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the probe on board lifted off as planned from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region at 9:10 a.m. local time (1:10 a.m. CEST), as seen during a live broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Everything was within the normal range, they said. The travel time to the Earth's satellite is therefore four and a half days.

Postponed due to technical problems

Actually, the probe should have been on the road for a long time. The first planned launch date of a lunar probe was in 2012, most recently in May 2022.

"Luna 25" is part of the Russian lunar program. The plan is to build a space station on the celestial body by 2040. Russia is thus building on its Soviet "Luna" program, in which space probes also brought moon rocks back to Earth.

"Luna 25", for example, is now intended to help develop a technology for a soft landing. For this purpose, the probe should collect soil samples from the moon and analyze them, it said. The planned investigations also include a study of the surface layers in the area of the southern pole of the moon.

Village evacuated

In the Khabarovsk region, the authorities had announced an evacuation of the village of Shakhtinsky on Friday (local time) before the planned launch of the rocket, because the first rocket stage of the Soyuz could hit there.

Originally, Roscosmos had worked with the European Space Agency Esa on the Russian lunar program. However, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine more than 17 months ago, ESA ended its cooperation with Moscow.

  • Read more about the mission here: Will Russia's lunar probe be more than an expensive shooting star?

SAK/DPA